MAMONT CUP 2016

#CHOOSEADVENTURE

MAMONT FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES COMPETITION FOR REAL ADVENTURERS– THE CHANCE TO WIN YOUR NEXT ADVENTURE OF A LIFETIME
– APPLICATION OPEN TO RUSSIAN FEDERATION
– REGISTRATION DEADLINE NOVEMBER 31, ONLINE VOTING UNTIL DECEMBER 14, 2015

The Mamont Foundation announces #ChooseAdventure, a one of a kind competition for real adventurers. The #ChooseAdventure competition is a unique opportunity for avid explorers to submit their dream expedition and tentative schedule, presenting the chance to win their next adventure. Following an online voting, the announced winner will receive a voucher to support his/her expedition and set off on an adventure with Mamont!

Through its adventures the Mamont Foundation opens a door to a world of discovery. It celebrates the adventurous spirit of exploration – an inspiration for travelers to push harder, travel further and discover more!

Perot Museum of Nature and Science

In August 2015 marked an expedition led by Dr. Fiorillo to Alaska looking at Cretaceous-aged rocks that are about 95 million years old. This older period puts us closer to the time when the land bridge between Asia and North America, commonly called the Bering Land Bridge, was put in place through the tectonic movements of geologic plates. Beringia is known to many for its Ice Age legacy when peopling of the New World and other animals such as mammoths began inhabiting the area.

Anthony Fiorillo writes: “Many of the groups of dinosaurs found in western North America during the Cretaceous had their origins in Asia. So understanding the gateway, or land bridge connection between these two continents, provides us the means for understanding the dinosaur faunas of two major land masses! We will be the first to explore this area for dinosaurs, and, with luck on our side, the outcome of our expedition could be very exciting. But this new expedition is arguably the most remote site yet, making our preparations extremely challenging.”

The expedition took place following the first-ever Foundation Mamont – Explorers Club World Exploration Challenge Grant of $100,000 that was awarded to Dr. Anthony Fiorillo, Vice President of Research and Collections and Chief Curator at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas. For more information about the expedition visit Anthony’s blog.

ATKA

During this course of a little less than two years, the Atka serves as a support to all kinds of projects, whether scientific, artistic, sporting, cultural or educational. The goal is to get as many people to discover the Arctic – its cultures, its land and its people.

Atka means “icebreaker” in Inuit, as “guardian spirits” and given by Mamont Foundation member François Bernard, a magnificent yacht in extraordinary destiny. Born of a great desire to share the project of the same name wants to make this boat a home base for various activities related to the Arctic. He will leave La Rochelle, France, and then joined Iceland, Greenland and Baffin Island (Nunavut), Canada.

It is through this sea journey of over a year, punctuated by a six months wintering in Greenland and breathtaking stops, the boat serve as a platform for those who wish to satisfy their desire adventure Far North and their dreams, either during navigation or during the winter, in the middle of the polar night and under the Northern Lights.

Sheep Drive Across London Bridge 2015

Foundation Mamont is proud to announce its support for the Sheep Drive Across London Bridge 2015 that took place in London on September 27, 2015. The Worshipful Company of Woolmen is one of the oldest of the Livery Companies of the City of London. Originally the body that oversaw woolpackers and wool merchants to ensure consistent standards for wool producers and wool merchants throughout the wool industry, it is now based on a charitable organisation that provides support for sheep farming, shearing, wool production and textiles and design in many different ways.

The Company supports research into appropriate veterinary procedures and practices; provides bursaries for students of wool, textile, design and other allied disciplines; and awards prizes and medals for sheep shearing at the major UK agricultural shows. Liverymen of the Woolmen’s Company have a connection with the wool trade, a connection with the City or support the aims and objects of The Woolmen’s Company. Find out more on the The Worshipful Compnay of Woolmen Official web site and check under Press.

THE MAMONT CUP 2015

The Mamont Foundation is proud to present the Mamont Cup 2015, the ultimate expedition to the North Pole consisting of 60 nautical miles (111 km) from the 89th degree. Every day during the expedition you will be able to track the Mamont Cup 2015 as we’ll be updating you with voice blogs and news from the ice as the teams Baltic, Arctic, Europa and UK take on the challenge of reaching the North Pole – Just click here!

Key Dates:

• Arrival at Longyearbyen, Norway: 10 April, 2015

• Expedition starts: 15 April, 2015

• Expected arrival at the North Pole: 21 April, 2015

LIVE UPDATES: THE MAMONT CUP 2015 EXPEDITION COMPLETE

All teams have successfully made it to the North Pole! For voice blogs from their arrival, see our SoundCloud application below.

UPDATE: We are delighted to announce that Team UK have made it to the North Pole! Followed closely by Team Baltic, both teams are thrilled at their achievements and arrived safe and sound at their goal. More information will be added as it becomes available, but both teams are currently skiing to their safety base.

Team Arctic and Team Europa are both making fantastic progress and should be arriving at the pole very soon – visit our tracking page above to see where each team is!

DAY THREE

Day three has been an eventful one in the Arctic with all teams nearing on the pole. Due to the near-perfect conditions and determination of the teams, progress is being made much quicker than anticipated and all are in high spirits.

No adventure comes without its challenges however, as Christine Dennison has sadly been helicoptered back to Camp Barneo due to a knee injury, and the whole of Team Arctic had to alter course to avoid Polar bears on the ice. Christine is safe and well and despite the delay, Team Arctic are making great progress. Bring on day four!

DAY TWO

Day two of the Mamont Cup began today with Teams UK and Baltic completing another successful day of skiing.

After the broken stoves of the day before, Team Arctic were helicoptered over to meet with Team Europa at 1pm (approximately 89N40) . With Christian Roeloff of Team Europa celebrating his birthday that day, it wasn’t all bad news in camp and with their help, Arctic managed to fix the stove problems and get in five hours of skiing before stopping to make camp around 28km from the North Pole.

With all teams pushing forward and now making good progress, we can’t wait to see what day three brings…

DAY ONE

Day one on the Mamont Cup expedition proved to be both successful and eventful, with all teams pushing ahead to reach the North Pole…but not without obstacles!

After a successful day skiing with mild weather of around -25C, Team Arctic were struck down at camp (89.5618N 112.2522E.) with two broken stoves and no way of making warm food or water. In the harsh conditions of the Arctic, a problem like this can quickly become dangerous so the team had no option but to plan for a helicopter trip the next day to the nearest other team – Team Europa.

Team UK and Team Baltic suffered no delay and despite the problems, all teams were in high spirits and ready for day two…

SUBGLACIOR

SUBGLACIOR: revolutionising paleoclimatology with a new type of probe

The purpose of the SUBGLACIOR project is to design, build and deploy a new type of in-situ ice-corer probe in the Antarctic in order to record, within a single season, the oldest available data on the earth’s climate sourced from natural ice that formed over a million years ago.

Since 2011, teams from four French research laboratories have been working on the Subglacior project with support from the BNP Paribas Foundation : the Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Géophysique de l’Environnement (LGGE, CNRS/Université Joseph Fourier) [Laboratory for Environmental Glaciology and Geophysics], the Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire de Physique (LIPhy, CNRS/Université Joseph Fourier) [Interdisciplinary Physics Laboratory], the technical division of the Institut National des Sciences de l’Univers of CNRS [National Institute of the Sciences of the Universe] (DT-INSU) and the Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement (LSCE, CNRS/CEA/UVSQ) [Laboratory for Climate and Environmental Sciences].

SUBGLACIOR is the main focus of the International Partnerships in Core Ice Sciences, an organisation which brings together scientists from 23 countries working on ice cores. It is financed by the European Research Council (ERC), the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) [French National Research Agency], the Investments for the Future programme under the CLIMCOR project, and the Institut polaire français Paul-Emile Victor (IPEV) [Paul-Emile Victor French Polar Institute]. Read more on BNP PARIBAS.

GREENEDGE Project

GREENICE is the land component of “GREENEDGE”, a large-scale international project that seeks to understand the dynamics of the spring phytoplankton bloom (PSB) that develops under the sea ice and in the marginal ice zone. This PSB accounts for more than 50% of annual primary production in the Arctic Ocean and supports ecosystem that is rich, but extremely vulnerable. Recent changes in climate have had important consequences for Arctic marine habitats. In particular, drastic reductions in summer ice cover have resulted in a 20% increase in primary productivity.

The GREENEDGE project aims to 1) understand the key physical, chemical and biological processes governing/which governed the PSB, 2) identify the key phytoplankton species involved in the PSB and model their growth under various environmental conditions, and 3) predict the fate of the PSB and related carbon transfer through the food web and toward the bottom sediments over the next decades.

The GREENICE component will monitor changes in the bloom of ice algae and phytoplankton during the seasonal melting of the sea ice cover. An international team, supported by the crew of the polar yacht Vagabond, will be present for 8 weeks on the ice near the Inuit village of Qikiqtarjuaq. They will deploy sensors on, in and under the ice to obtain a detailed description of the physical and biogeochemical processes at the interfaces.

The project, coordinated by Takuvik Joint International Laboratory, a partnership between the CNRS (France) and Université Laval (Quebec, Canada) is the result of close collaboration between French, Canadian and international teams working in the Arctic Ocean.

ACE 2015

ACE 2015 was designed in co-operation with leading experts in fields, such as geogenetics, archaeology, paleontology, zoology, biology and the members of universities, such as the University of Copenhagen and Swiss Federal Research Institute responsible for groundbreaking research. The expedition will monitor the Northeast and Northwest passages of the circumpolar route adjacent to Greenland.

The key project goals of the ACE 2015 include: – Monitoring air content of water vapor isotopes – Oceanographic observations of the Siberian shelf – Further research on the indigenous settlements of the Arctic In further perspective, the project aims to establish a circumpolar permafrost monitoring system. Sites along the ACE 2014-2015 route will be chosen to install small climate stations, measuring future climate and energy balance in the region and transmitting data via satellite for a 6-8 year period. The project will collect cores of the permafrost in 3-4m long at regular intervals and will subsequently install temperature sensors in the uppermost part of the permafrost to monitor changes linked to climate changes over the following years. The project will be carried out on the schooner “Activ”, built in 1951 is the last large vessel of over 40 meters in length, constructed of oak in traditional design. With an integrated ice plating, the “Activ” is one of the last vessels on Earth enabled to navigate in Arctic waters and will be the first historic ship to navigate the expedition’s route. The preparation for the ACE 2014-2015 will be carried out by the foundation as the main partner, responsible for the cutting-edge equipment testing which is to be carried out during the Mamont Circumpolar Mission set in August 2014 on the “ACTIV” schooner.

ARCTIC CIRCLE 2014

The Mamont Foundation is proud to support the Arctic Circle 2014, a new assembly for international cooperation on Arctic issues that will take place between October 31 and November 2, 2014 in Reykjavik, Iceland.

The mission of the assembly is to facilitate dialogue and build relationship to confront the Arctic’s greatest challenges. The opening session will present prominent speakers, such as presidents, prime ministers and leaders of international organizations in support of the initiative. The meeting will cover topics, ranging from future outlook on the Arctic until year 2035 to countries’ visions on policy, research and business developments in the region. Key-note speakers will also include academicians, discussing official policies, and influential academic panelists, representing institutes on geopolitics and security.

The Arctic region has been under the limelight for its challenges and the assembly presents an opportunity to discuss ways of reaching a working consensus on many issues, such as spill response from engineering, marine ecology, coastal community protection and infrastructure and preservation of the Arctic oceans and the effects of global climate change.